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Thanks to Yuji Hashimoto over at Takamori Kosan of Japan for helping me to translate this one! Today’s review is one that I think I found up in Canada. It looks to be similar to Maruchan’s regular Kitsune Udon bowl – the red one.Kitsune means ‘fox’ in Japanese. Here’s a little something about the ‘kitsune myth’ from wikipedia –
I think this is the last of these I got when I went up to Canada last year. Shoyu translates to soy sauce, so these are soy sauce flavor ramen noodles. Shoyu is one of the standard flavors of ramen from Japan, such as miso and tonkotsu. Sounds pretty good to me – let’s have a look inside and give ’em a try!
I want to send a special thank you to Craig Y. over at Maruchan for facilitating the process of getting Instant Lunch California Vegetable into my hands! Much appreciated! I hunted high and low for these and couldn’t find them! There are lots of products sold around the United States – and some do better in some areas than others. A good example would be the King Cake. Most people where I live don’t know what a King Cake is, however folks in Louisiana definitely do – it’s a special cake enjoyed around Mardi Gras. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about King Cakes:
Woo-hoo! I’ve been looking for a couple varieties by Maruchan for a while and this is one of them. I want to thank Craig Y. and all the nice folks at Maruchan for getting this one in my hands! I’m sure someone out there is going to say ‘Hard to find? It’s at every store around me!’ One thing though is that not every product is marketed or distributed to every area. One example of this kind of thing is a soda called Cheerwine. It’s quite popular and easily found in the southern United States, but it’s relatively unknown on the west coast. Anyways, Jalapeno Cheddar noodles sounds pretty neat! Let’s have a look at this one.
I sent an email whilst down in California to a friend at Maruchan USA as to where to find a couple varieties I couldn’t find here. He was kind enough to arrange some samples!
Most of us in the United States are familiar with Maruchan’s ramen packs and ‘Instant Lunch’ cups. However, most of us aren’t familiar with Maruchan’s popular products overseas in Japan. Miso is a fermented soybean paste – it’s good stuff, with a kind of musty scent. Notice on the front of this one: it’s also saying that it’s lower calorie. Let’s have a look inside.
I like the title of this one, because to be honest, I do want to eat Shio ramen today! Shio translates to salt in Japanese, but it’s not like you get a block of noodles and a packet of table salt. There are four main variants of Japanese ramen, with Shio being one of them. Here’s what wikipedia has to say about Shio:
Bowls of noodles. They’re made all around the world and are a great option for those with access to boiling water and are ‘on the go.’ Some are basic and have very little imagination to them or perks, while others are really full meals that include meat and vegetables, seafood and other niceties. I’ve review 1,410 different noodle varieties and of those, many have been bowls. Here’s a list of the best, most memorable bowls I’ve come across is my adventure in tasting.
Maruchan Instant Lunch is one of those products you see everywhere in the United States at grocery stores. Maruchan makes these cups as well as packs of ramen. They’re popular in Mexico as well – people refer to soup a lot of the time as ‘maruchan’ as it has become so popular and intrinsic to daily life. A month or so ago, I saw a post on Instagram. This guy was saying how he could eat these Instant Lunch cups (this flavor in particular) for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. I thought to myself, ‘have I reviewed this one?’ Well as it turns out I had – but it was way back in June of 2011. I’m always on the hunt for instant noodles that cannot be found within the United States – the more exotic the better. This guy’s enthusiasm about this little cup that can be found virtually everywhere here in the USA piqued my curiosity; is it worth another try? So when out grocery shopping, I decided to get one. After two weeks of enjoying varieties from Southeast Asia, I think this should be interesting. Let’s check it out!
Wow thank you to Scott A. and Mari S. for help in translating the name of this one! Making this one for the kid – he’s unsure about it, but hopefully he’ll want to eat it! Let’s check it out.
Here’s one I got early this year the MBS TV station sent to me after I did the God Of Patena TV show! Thanks again – hope to be on again someday! Let’s check it out!
Here’s another I got at T&T Supermarket up in Burnaby, BC. Took a bit of research, but yep – old style shio ramen is what this is. Shio means salt. – but this isn’t a bowl of saltiness. Shio is light and savory stuff! By the way – did you know that salt was a way to pay people in the past? That’s where the term ‘worth your salt’ and the word salary come from! It brings out flavors, but was also used as a way to keep meats for longer when freezers and refrigerators weren’t around. Anyways, let’s check this one out!
The instant noodle originated in 1958 in Japan, but since that time, they’ve expanded in popularity all over the world, including of course, the United States. Seeing this, instant noodle companies thought it wise to start building plants here in the 1970s. Since then, many brands operate factories here in the US, mostly in southern California. This is a list of my favorite varieties produced here, encompassing my over 1,100 reviews to date. With that, here’s your top ten, America!
Here’s another one I was given by the nice folks at T&T Supermarket up in Canada – thanks again! I thought some fresh noodles would be nice for dinner tonight and I’ve wanted to try these for quite some time. Let’s check ’em out!
After more than a year of pondering and reviewing since the last list, here’s the new top ten instant noodle bowls. This encompasses all instant noodle bowls reviewed up to today, June 15th, 2013. With no further adieu, the top ten instant noodle bowls of all time, 2013 edition.
This is a fancy one from Japan sent by the kind folks at MBS Planning! Thank you! From what I could translate and infer, this is a special, premium pack of noodles. Let’s check it out.
Here’s the last of the three product samples sent by the nice folks at Maruchan – thanks again! Spicy shrimp sounds good – let’s check it out.
Here’s one of the new Maruchan Bowl products. There are three varieties – a non-spicy chicken which I reviewed a while back, this one and a spicy shrimp. Maruchan sent me these in a neat box – first samples from them (hope to get more of their stuff in the future)! Well, let’s check it out!
Here it is. The one thousandth review. I’m pretty surprised; really didn’t expect to get this far! But I have and don’t see and end in sight – reviewing instant noodles is a lot of fun for me and looks like all of the people who check out the site like it too!
Here’s one of the new Maruchan Bowls that they recently sent samples of. The only Maruchan bowls I’ve had before were only made in Japan – like the Midori No Tanuki and the Akai Kitsune Udon, both of which are in the Top Ten Instant Noodle Bowls list. Today I’m having the chicken variety.
Wow how cool – samples from Maruchan! first ever!
I saw something about the new Maruchan Bowls on their website and asked my contact about them. Well, they sent me this neat box!
Merry Christmas Eve! Thought today I would go a little festive with my review. What does Jalapeno Cheddar instant yakisoba have to do with Christmas? Well, I don’t know but it just seemed like the right thing to do. You’ll see – trust me you’ll see. This is one I was looking for for a long time and my lovely wife Kit found it at the Grocery Outlet! Rad!
Found these at Walmart yesterday – or wait that was today… We decided to go shopping at 1am – figured we’d beat the crowds… Well, we did beat the crowds but they were restocking – pretty amazing all the pallets they load there at night! Wow… Anyways, creamy chicken sounded good. Here’s the original review and I’ll do a really in-depth re-review soon!
An absolute surprise yesterday! Found this and two other Maruchan Yakisoba varieties I’ve been hunting for for quite a long time! Let’s give it a try!
Instantaneous Lunch? Nope – three minutes. But if you’re too impatient for that, I suppose one could eat it raw. I prefer the cooked version myself!
Strange how lately Walmart has become a treasure trove for Maruchan products – found six I hadn’t reviewed there recently! Anyways, here’s the chicken lower sodium pack.
Ah! The elusive 35% less sodium pack! A lot of you have asked about lower sodium instant noodles – here’s one. Each pack has two servings at 510mg sodium each instead of 790mg of sodium (look at the back of the package below for details). Found it recently at Walmart actually. Its funny how many Asian grocery stores I know of and hit up for new noodles to review from time to time, but I still find new items at the biggest grocery store around. I’m hoping to be doing a Meet The Manufacturer with Maruchan sometime soon too! That’s going to be great! Anyways, let’s see how this one is…
Here’s another one of Maruchan’s Instant Lunches – who would think that I wouldn’t have reviewed it until now… Weird! But here’s the shrimp instant cup!
When I recently redid The Big List, I noticed some things. One of them was that I have never reviewed this one, nor it’s Beef or Shrimp fellow Instant Lunches! Talk about an oversight on my part… I’m hoping that I’ll be able to do a Meet The Manufacturer with Maruchan soon – thanks to everyone who has asked me to do one, it’s just I’ve never been able to successfully get in touch with them. Well, here we go with a close up and personal with Maruchan’s Instant Lunch: Chicken Flavor.
This is one that came from Courtnay N. of Surrey, BC – thanks! Maruchan makes lots of instant noodles that can be found in the USA, but of course they make varieties that are only available in Japan – this is one of them.
Haven’t done one of these in a while! This is another one donated by Ramen Place. Spicy vegetable huh? That’s a kind of weird flavor. I have seen vegetable / vegetarian flavor and then spicy varieties, but not usually spicy vegetable. Well, let’s try it out!
Here’s another one from Ramen Place! Thanks! I think this should be a tasty one – let’s see!
Such a classic – almost as American as it is Japanese! Actually, this packet was made in California. Just like rival Nissin, Maruchan has a huge southern California factory. Here’s a re-review of this standard that probably everyone has had once in their lifetime.
I remember reviewing this one a while back up in Anacortes – got it and was really stoked as I’d never seen it before!
Here’s one that we got at a northern Oregon Chevron of all places. Man, I’m still jonesin’ to try the Beef Taco and Jalapeno Cheddar flavors!!!
Here we go with review 600! Yep – this is why there were all the re-reviews last week! Thanks go to Mike M. of Staten Island, NY for pointing out that I’d reviewed the Roast Beef but not the regular beef flavor!
Been awhile since I’ve had a domestic Maruchan Yakisoba! This one was purchased on our drive back from our honeymoon this summer in mid-July. Got it and another one at a Chevron in northern Oregon of all places!
Got this one at Walmart. Was pretty sure I hadn’t tried it and was right so here goes.
I’ve tried many of the Maruchan noodles line and I’d thought I’d had all of their packaged noodles for the US market – then this shows up. The Market At Anacortes had it – never seen it before. My wife loves mushrooms so hoping she likes it too.
So here’s some Instant Lunch. Haven’t done one of these in a while and I’m sure that there’s a ton of them I need to do still. So hot & spicy beef – let’s give ‘er a try.
